The Flathead/Glacier Booster Club has split. The unanimous decision to separate into two clubs — made by the Flathead/Glacier Booster Club in the spring — is a move to boost membership, donations, ideas and interest in serving as board members.

The Flathead Booster Club expanded to include Glacier when the second Kalispell high school opened in 2007. Until now, donations to the joint club were divided equally between Flathead and Glacier to support student activities.

Now Trina Stivers will serve as Flathead Booster Club president and Tod Young as Glacier High School Booster Club president.

Before the separation, interest in serving on the Flathead/Glacier Booster Club board had waned. Of the 11 board members, about seven were active.

“Finding new people to replace outgoing board members was becoming quite a task,” Stivers said.

Since the split, Stivers and Young said community interest in serving on the booster club boards is well above the needed 11 voting members per school.

“Everybody is excited to support the school their children attend,” Stivers said.

The combined club also was experiencing a decline in donations because some parents wanted to solely support the school their children attended, so the combined club was impeding fundraising efforts and support, Stiver and Young said.

“With the joint booster club, we definitely felt a decline in membership especially with the economic downturn,” Young said.

Young said that after the division, each school’s booster club received $17,826 in the split of the combined club’s resources.

In the previous year, that number was roughly $25,000 per school.

Even with separate booster clubs, Stiver and Young emphasized that each club’s mission is to keep school rivalry and competition on the playing field and support all students. Community members and businesses still will have the option of supporting both schools.

“Even though activities within the schools do compete against each other, the two clubs are not in any competition with each other,” Stivers said. “We all agree we’re ultimately in it for the students no matter which school they attend. We clearly want both schools to succeed.”

Flathead Booster Club and Glacier High School Booster Club will continue a few joint fundraisers such as a golf scramble to benefit Legends Stadium on Sept. 9 at Big Mountain Golf Club. They will not, however, hold the annual fall auction this year.

Currently, the Glacier Booster Club is applying for its own nonprofit status separate from Flathead’s.

“Both booster clubs are looking toward being successful and helping the students,” Young said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at [email protected].